


Daughters

by protectoroffaeries



Category: Skulduggery Pleasant - Derek Landy
Genre: F/M, I DON'T EVEN SHIP THEM, it's cute and little frightening because alice is a powerful devil child, the ship is only implied at the end, this is a more father daughter type fic, where dexter and alice bond
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-05
Updated: 2016-08-05
Packaged: 2018-07-29 13:22:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7686115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/protectoroffaeries/pseuds/protectoroffaeries
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alice needs protection from Darquesse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Daughters

**Author's Note:**

> this may or may not be my reaction the announcement of the phase 2 spx series thing 
> 
> actually it totally is

Alice is young. She is magical. And she is afraid. 

Saracen Rue doesn’t have to use his magic to know all of these things. He and Dexter have seen it with their own eyes, mere seconds ago. She is six or seven by the look of her. Saracen can’t remember if Valkyrie ever mentioned exactly how old she is. It’s irrelevant, really, at this point. 

She used magic on them as soon as they came through her front door. Alice’s ability is unique. It’s a sort of compulsion. If she could use it on Dexter and Saracen at the same time, they would’ve left. But she got scared and confused and couldn’t decide what she wanted either of them to do, so she freed Dexter from whatever alarming hold she’d thrown over him. 

Now Alice is sitting on the countertop in her kitchen. She has a rather large knife in her hands, and she’s told Dexter and Saracen not to come any closer. She tells them, also, that Valkyrie told her not to trust anyone that came by. Saracen has no idea how they’re going to explain the difference between Valkyrie and Darquesse to her, but that’s not an issue at this precise moment. 

“Alice,” Dexter says. Dexter is better with children than Saracen is. If Alice needs a place to stay now that her parents are dead, Saracen thinks that she should go with Dexter. He had a daughter once, and he failed her. But Saracen is sure he could make up for it with Alice.

Of course, first they have to get her to put the knife down. 

“I told you to go away,” says Alice darkly. “I’ll stab you.”

“You don’t have to stab me, Alice. I’m not going to hurt you.”

Alice makes a derisive noise. “That’s right. Because I have a knife.”

“No, because Saracen and I aren’t bad people.”

Alice looks like she has a lot of things she wants to say, and after an internal debate, she picks the most childish one. “Is his name really Saracen?”

“Yes.”

“That sounds like a girl’s name.”

“Sometimes Saracen acts like a girl,” Dexter tells her with a little shrug. Saracen barely resists the urge to smack him - not because there’s anything wrong with being called a girl, but because teasing him with a violent seven year old not Saracen’s idea of the best course of action.

But Alice giggles. “He wishes he was cool enough to be a girl,” she says. 

Dexter nods in agreement. 

“Why are you here?” she asks, and her legs swing forward and back again, clattering against the cabinets. She is still scared, Saracen sees it in her eyes, but there’s also a curious glint there. She’s remarkably calm of a recent orphan, and suddenly gets the feeling that she doesn’t know. 

“We’re here to keep you safe,” Dexter says. 

“From what?”

“Something bad,” Saracen speaks up for the first time. 

Alice gives him a cross look. “What exactly? My mum says I shouldn’t talk to strange old men, by the way. “  
“I am not strange, and I’m sure I’m older than you think,” Dexter says, and Alice turns her attention back to him. 

“I was talking to your girlfriend.”

“Saracen wishes he was my girlfriend,” Dexter hums. Saracen doesn’t deny this, mostly because he doesn’t have the energy to. He’s more concerned about getting Alice somewhere safe, anyhow. 

Alice giggles again, and she sets the knife down. She’s a cute kid - she looks a lot like Valkyrie, just smaller and more innocent. Saracen wonders if she’s met Skulduggery yet. He thinks that he would be good with her, too. 

Maybe he should’ve had his own daughter, Saracen muses, and then he violently remembers how Skulduggery and Dexter lost theirs. He made the right decision, not having kids. 

Alice jumps down off the counter and crosses the kitchen. Her dark hair swishes behind her. It’s longer than Saracen has ever seen Valkyrie’s, although, admittedly, he hasn’t known Valkyrie for long. She stands in front of Dexter and crooks her index finger at him. Dexter apparently knows what this means because he kneels in front of her. 

She gives him a hard look and places her hands on both sides of his face. “You’re going to tell me the truth,” she says, and Saracen can feel her magic crackling in the air. She lets go of his face, but she’s still looking Dexter in the eye. The expression on her face is far more intense than Saracen would expect on a child. 

“I will,” he promises her. “What do you want to know?”

“What is your name?”

“Dexter Vex.”

“Why are you here?”

“To protect you.”

“Why do I need protecting?”

Something flashes across Dexter’s face, something like pain. “Darquesse wants to use you against Valkyrie and Skulduggery,” he eventually says. Saracen understands that he couldn’t choose to say nothing, even if he hadn’t promised her honesty. Whatever the details of her compulsion magic, it’s only made strong her with eye contact. 

“Who is Darquesse?”

“An evil alter ego of your sister,” Dexter says, and though Saracen wouldn’t have explained it that way, he supposes that’s the simplest explanation. 

Alice seems to understand what he means, to a point. “Do they… look alike?”

“Yes.”

“Do you think it was her that told me not to trust anyone?”

“Yes.”

“Are you a good guy, Dexter? Is Saracen?”

“Yes.”

“Is that all you can?”

Dexter smiles at her. “No,” he answers, and Alice smiles back.

Dexter does take custody of Alice, although Valkyrie wants to. Skulduggery is the one that talks her out of it - obviously, Darquesse wants to use Alice to get to Valkyrie, and the two of them living together would only make it easier for her to accomplish that goal. Saracen doesn’t know where Dexter and Alice go - Dexter won’t tell anyone, not him, not Valkyrie, not Skulduggery. All he says is that he can’t let her die again. 

When Saracen crosses paths with Tanith once more, years later, he asks her if she ever thought about having a daughter.

**Author's Note:**

> ask me a question about Dexter's daughter and i will tell you everything about her expect who her mother is
> 
> also ask me about Alice's magic that works too


End file.
